© ebm-papst

“We offer our global customers the prod­ucts they need.” 

Thomas Nürn­berger is respon­sible for global sales and the APAC & MEA region at ebm-papst. In this inter­view, he talks about the current market situ­a­tion and the new world of digital services.


The new era of venti­lation tech­nology

Get the most out of your air condi­tioning or refrig­er­a­tion system in terms of effi­ciency and oper­a­tional reli­a­bility: with Digital Services from ebm-papst.

How enjoy­able is it being respon­sible for sales, given the current state of the economy and global crises? 

I always enjoy being respon­sible for sales because I like working with our customers. The state of the economy has no effect on that. Of course, growth is always welcome. On the other hand, we are able to better show­case our knowl­edge, skills and exper­tise when the economy isn’t doing so well.  

Where do you see the biggest chal­lenges at present?   

In terms of regions, Europe currently presents the biggest chal­lenges. When it comes to appli­ca­tions, two areas in partic­ular are impacted: resi­den­tial venti­lation and heat pumps. One reason for this is that resi­den­tial construc­tion in Germany has decreased by 40 percent. Another reason is that heat pump manu­fac­turers have seen their sales halved, espe­cially due to the uncer­tainty caused by Germany’s Building Energy Act. Added to this is industry’s general invest­ment reti­cence. 

Going local: CSO Thomas Nürn­berger on the road in produc­tion in China. (Photo | ebm-papst)

Thomas Nürn­berger sees the poten­tial of the future in China and South­east Asia. (Photo | ebm-papst)

How are you dealing with this?   

We are trying to compen­sate with other appli­ca­tions and by working with customers in these areas to develop inno­v­a­tive solu­tions. One example is a new central elec­tronics system for heat pumps that provides addi­tional bene­fits for customers and also helps improve effi­ciency. Our goal is to tran­si­tion from being only a supplier of compo­nents to a system supplier, thus gener­ating addi­tional value for our customers.  

Could you be more specific about this change?  

We not only supply hard­ware but have also added soft­ware to our port­folio. By analyzing data with arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, we make it possible to improve the use of fans, thus increasing the energy effi­ciency and reli­a­bility of the entire system. On the same basis, we also provide digital services to support condi­tion moni­toring and predic­tive main­te­nance.  

By analyzing data with arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence, we make it possible to improve the use of fans, thus increasing the energy effi­ciency and reli­a­bility of the entire system.

Thomas Nürn­berger, Chief Sales Officer ebm‑papst Group & Chief Exec­u­tive Officer Air Tech­nology APAC

 Which markets do you think have the greatest poten­tial?   

The Asia-Pacific and Amer­icas regions. By Asia, I don’t just mean China but also South­east Asia, and India in partic­ular. This is home to many of the big players in the data center and commer­cial air tech­nology sectors. When it comes to clean­rooms, we are the leading supplier to the semi­con­ductor industry world­wide. The same is true for the area of renew­ables, where we supply fans of all sizes – from compact to large – for the charging infra­struc­ture and the produc­tion, distri­b­u­tion and storage of energy, for example. There is also great poten­tial in the retro­fitting sector. In Germany, for example, 70 percent of commer­cial air tech­nology systems are more than 20 years old. Through a retrofit with our plug-and-play solu­tions, we can help save a signif­i­cant amount of energy.  

What is the impact of your local-for-local strategy?  

Thanks to our global struc­ture, we can supply our customers in all three regions with the prod­ucts they need. And we are the only fan manu­fac­turer of this size in the world that can also deliver suffi­cient quan­ti­ties. 

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